Trust in Journalism in the Structural Change of Media

观众S对新闻业的信任对于一个正常运作的民主公众来说是至关重要的。这突显出，在包括德国和美国在内的许多民主国家，媒体的怀疑情绪日益高涨，这一实证研究结果具有相关性。与此同时，可以观察到媒体和公共传播的结构性变化。除其他外，这包括信息来源的多样化--其中许多是非新闻性的--改变公民的新闻选择和接收惯例，他们更多地参与公共辩论(例如，在用户评论中)，以及新闻业角色的变化。人们对新闻业的信任度下降和媒体的结构变化这两个现象之间的关系如何，这两个现象之间的关系到目前为止还鲜有人探讨。这是拟议项目的起点。基于传播学理论和研究结果，借助期望-经验-差异理论，提出了一个模型，该模型有助于解释个体在新闻工作中的信任或不信任是如何演变的。同时，对中央媒体和受众相关因素进行识别，并结合问题进行研究。使用多方法方法，可以回答研究问题，并可以对模型进行实证检验和改进。计划了三个密切相关的子研究：1.在n=20个互联网用户的定性访谈中，从接受者的角度探讨了相关的结构和假设的效果。访谈的重点是确定接受者与新闻工作最相关的期望和经历，并衡量对新闻工作的信任，因为它是在差异模型中假设的。2.在对n=2000名因特网用户的在线代表性调查中，调查了该模式的所有接受方结构：这些是最广泛使用的信息来源和内容、所有与新闻有关的期望和看法、对新闻的信任和接受者的特点。3.在媒体内容分析中，对包括用户评论在内的广播、印刷和在线媒体中的德国信息源进行了定量测量。此外，还分析了与公众相关的演员在Facebook上的帖子。调查期包括代表性调查的前一个月。这种方法使我们能够单独地将分析的媒体和社交媒体内容与知道和使用它们的受访者联系起来。总之，提出的方法组合可以记录所有的媒体和受众结构，并将它们与个人对新闻业的信任或不信任的发展相关联。

The audience´s trust in journalism is essential for a functioning democratic public. This underscores the relevance of current empirical findings of a growing media skepticism in many democratic countries, including Germany and the US. Simultaneously, a structural change of media and public communication can be observed. Thes includes, among others, the multiplication of information sources - many of them non-journalistic -, changing news selection and reception routines among citizens, their increased participation in public debates (e.g. in user comments), as well as the changing role of journalism. The question of how the two phenomena - decreasing trust in journalism and the structural change of media - are related, has so far been little explored. This is the starting point of the proposed project. Based on communication theories and findings and with recourse to the theory of expectation-experience-discrepancies, a model is proposed what helps explaining how individual trust or mistrust in journalism evolves. At the same time, central media and audience related factors are identified and combined to research questions. Using a multi-method approach, the research questions can are answered and the model can be empirically tested and refined. Three closely related sub-studies are planned: 1. In n = 20 qualitative interviews with Internet users, relevant constructs and assumed effects are explored from the recipient view. Interviews focus on identifying recipients´ most relevant expectations and experiences concerning journalism and measuring trust in journalism as it is posited in the discrepancy-model. 2. In an online representative survey of n = 2000 Internet users, all recipient-side constructs of the model are surveyed: These are the most widely used information sources and contents, all journalism-related expectations and perceptions, trust in journalism and recipient characteristics. 3. In a media content analysis, German information sources in radio, print and online media including user comments are quantitatively measured. In addition, Facebook posts of publicly relevant actors are analyzed. The investigation period covers the month prior to the representative survey. This approach enables us to individually link the analyzed media and social media contents with those respondents who know and use them. In sum, the proposed method combination can register all media and audience constructs and relate them to the individual development of trust or mistrust in journalism.